WASHINGTON — President Obama marked the death of former South African President Nelson Mandela, who died in Pretoria today at age 95, by noting that his own first “political action” was an anti-apartheid protest.

Having served 27 years behind bars for various sedition charges, Mandela was released from prison in 1990 and forged an end to apartheid with President F.W. de Klerk. The two shared the Nobel Peace Prize in 1993. De Klerk, 77, was hospitalized in July to have a pacemaker installed.

Mandela had been in failing health for years and various media reports over the past few months said that he was in a critical to unresponsive state.

South African President Jacob Zuma announced to the world that Mandela “passed on peacefully in the company of his family” just before 9 p.m. local time.

“Our thoughts are with his friends, comrades and colleagues who fought alongside Madiba over the course of a lifetime of struggle. Our thoughts are with the South African people who today mourn the loss of the one person who, more than any other, came to embody their sense of a common nationhood,” Zuma said. “Our thoughts are with the millions of people across the world who embraced Madiba as their own, and who saw his cause as their cause. This is the moment of our deepest sorrow.”

“A great light has gone out in the world. Nelson Mandela was a hero of our time,” British Prime Minister David Cameron tweeted. “I’ve asked for the flag at No10 to be flown at half mast.”

Reporters were quickly called to the White House briefing room for a live statement by President Obama.

Obama began with a quote from Mandela at the closing of his trial in 1964:”I have fought against white domination, and I have fought against black domination. I have cherished the ideal of a democratic and free society in which all persons live together in harmony with equal opportunities. It is an ideal which I hope to live for and to see realized. But if needs be, it is an ideal for which I am prepared to die.”

“Nelson Mandela lived for that ideal, and he made it real. He achieved more than could be expected of any man. Today, he has gone home. And we have lost one of the most influential, courageous, and profoundly good human beings that any of us will share time with on this Earth. He no longer belongs to us — he belongs to the ages,” Obama said.

Saying that Mandela “set an example that all humanity should aspire to ,” Obama said, “I am one of the countless millions who drew inspiration from Nelson Mandela’s life.”

“My very first political action, the first thing I ever did that involved an issue or a policy or politics, was a protest against apartheid. I studied his words and his writings. The day that he was released from prison gave me a sense of what human beings can do when they’re guided by their hopes and not by their fears,” he continued. “And like so many around the globe, I cannot fully imagine my own life without the example that Nelson Mandela set, and so long as I live I will do what I can to learn from him.”

“We will not likely see the likes of Nelson Mandela again. So it falls to us as best we can to forward the example that he set: to make decisions guided not by hate, but by love; to never discount the difference that one person can make; to strive for a future that is worthy of his sacrifice.”

Obama said Mandela “bent the arc of the moral universe toward justice.”

“May God bless his memory and keep him in peace,” he concluded.

Former President George W. Bush said Mandela “was one of the great forces for freedom and equality of our time.”

“He bore his burdens with dignity and grace, and our world is better off because of his example,” Bush said in a statement. “This good man will be missed, but his contributions will live on forever. Laura and I send our heartfelt sympathy to President Mandela’s family and to the citizens of the nation he loved.”

Considering that Mandela was 95 years old and his death was expected, it is unclear why Obama’s words were not more inspiring or profound. Among Obama’s poorly worded sentences: “We will not likely see the likes of Nelson Mandela again.”

He also said that Mandela “Bent the arc of the moral universe toward justice,” repeating yet again the “arc of the moral universe” line which he lifted from Martin Luther King, Jr., who himself lifted it from 19th century Unitarian minister Theodore Parker.

Mandela was a life long Communist, just like Obama. What we're going to see in South Africa now, after his death, is a huge increase of Black on White murders. They were already at genocidal proportions, google it and see for yourself. Everywhere these cretins go, we see Black on White murders and other crimes. Now why is that?

Based on previous lies such as his 10 year old father serving in WWII, I expect his assertion to be just another lie. Nothing that dolt has to say is of interest to me. I am much more interested in what he doesn't say. Once again...LIAR!

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